NTRAL  CIRCULATION  BOOKSTACKS 

he  person  charging  this  material  is  re- 
►onsible  for  its  renewal  or  its  return  to 
e  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed 
I  or  before  the  Latest  Dcite  stamped 
;low.  You  may  be  charged  a  minimum 
e  of  $75.00  for  each  lost  book. 

th,  motikrtieq,  tmd  underilning  of 


Univ«rsily. 

RENEW  CAU  TELEPHONE  CENTER,  333-8400 

IVEKSITY  OF   iUINOIS   LIBRARY  AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


Kil  ^tSSI 


hen  renewing  by  i^one,  write  new  due  date  below 
svious  due  date.  L162 


IMMIGRATION  BILL-EXCLUSION  OF  JAPANESE  LABOR 


SPEECH 


OF 


HON.  ANTHONY  MICHALEK 


OF    ILLINOIS 


IN  THE 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 

Monday,  February  18, 1907 


if        if 


"WASHINGTON 

1907 


'283 


'^A^"S2, 


<^'- 


le  \ 
3ns 
tXi 
or 
low 
e  o 
ft,  f 


RENI 
IVBU 


^Y 


revi 


SPEECH 

OF 

HON.    ANTHONY    MIOHALEK 


The  House  having  under  consideration  the  conference  report  on  the 
hill  (S.  4403)  to  amend  an  act  entitled  "An  act  to  regulate  the  immi- 
gration of  aliens  into  the  United  States,"^  approved  March  3,  1903 — 

Mr.  MICHALEK  said: 

Mr.  Speaker  :  While  there  are  some  provisions  in  this  bill 
which  are  of  doubtful  value  and  the  necessity  of  which  1  can 
not  at  this  time  see,  yet  I  believe  that  the  measure  in  other  re- 
spects is  an  improvement  upon  our  present  immigration  laws, 
and  I  shall  therefore  vote  for  the  adoption  of  this  conference 
report. 

I  do  not  favor  the  head-tax  compromise;  and  if  it  were  not 
for  the  fact  that  the  parliamentary  situation  is  such  as  to  pro- 
hibit the  offering  of  any  amendments,  I  should  move  to  reduce 
this  tax  from  four  to  two  dollars,  which  is  the  amount  of  the 
head  tax  under  our  present  immigration  act.  Also  to  strike 
out  the  section  the  enforcement  of  which  is  left  to  the  scien- 
tific (?)  "guess"  of  the  examining  surgeon,  as  to  whether  per- 
sons of  poor  physique  can  or  can  not  earn  a  living.  This  pro- 
vision and  its  practical  effect  and  operation  will  unjustly  affect 
a  certain  virile,  though  not  physically  robust,  race. 

I  am  glad  to  note  the  absence  of  the  educational-test  amend- 
ment from  this  bill,  the  incorporation  of  which,  in  my  judgment, 
would  unreasonably  restrict  desirable  immigration  and  not  have 
any  material  effect  in  barring  undesirables. 

The  provision  for  the  creation  of  a  commission  to  investigate 
this  subject  and  report  its  findings- to  Congress  is  a  step  in  the 
right  direction  and  ought  to  result  in  a  harmonious  solution  of 
this  question. 

7283  8 


^-^^  - 


±mm 


While  many  of  us  in  and  out  of  Congress  tionestly  dififer  in 
our  opinions  on  various  phases  of  this  immigration  question,  it 
will  perhaps  not  be  amiss  for  me  to  remind  you  and  the  coun- 
try in  general  in  this  connection  that  nothing  is  gained,  and  a 
great  deal  of  friction  caused,  putting  it  briefly  and  bluntly,  by 
the  indiscriminate  and  lamentably  ignorant  classification  of 
certain  nationalities  of  eastern  and  southern  Europe  as  "  Da- 
goes "  by  certain  writers  and  professional  reformers  in  the 
guise  of  slum  workers. 

These  people  seem  to  have  and  preserve  a  stubborn  mental 
antipathy  toward  a  white  person  not  born  in  this  country,  and 
what  is  more  to  be  regretted,  are  prone  to  make  him  feel  like 
an  alien  at  every  opportunity  that  presents  itself,  although  in 
thought  and  feeling  he  may  be  a  better  American  than  the  one 
who  traces  his  ancestry  to  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 

Let  us  not  draw  our  conclusions  of  the  foreign  element  in 
our  midst  by  impressions  of  them  created  when  they  first  land 
or  are  here  a  short  time.  Let  us  readjust  those  first  impres- 
sions and  conclusions  to  their  relation  to  us  as  a  nation  that 
the  powerful  influence  of  Americanization  inevitably  brings. 

This  so-called  white  immigration  problem  is,  in  my  humble 
opinion,  a  question  largely  of  proper  distribution.  I  am  glad  to 
see  that  there  is  in  this  bill  a  provision  authorizing  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  bureau  of  information  for  the  special  purpose  of 
dealing  with  this  most  important  phase  of  this  question.  I 
sincerely  hope  that  it  will  accomplish  its  purpose. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  this  report  would  not  have  been  agreed 
upon  by  the  conference  committees  had  it  not  been  for  the  inter- 
jection of  the  Japanese  question.  With  regard  to  the  Roose- 
velt amendment  and  the  reasons  that  caused  its  insertion,  I 
regret  to  note  that  the  big  stick  has  dwindled,  sir,  to  the  mag- 
nificent dimensions  of  a  toothpick.     [Laughter.] 

Now,  I  ask  you,  Mr.  Speaker,  and  you  gentlemen  of  this 
House,  by  what  law  of  human  reasoning  based  upon  the  logic 
of  the  situation  can  we,  the  greatest  nation  of  the  West,  kowtow 
to  the  little  pampered  bully  of  the  East  [applause  on  the  Demo- 
cratic  side],   whose   self-asserted  greatness   lies   solely   in   his 

7283 


highly  developed  sense  of  imitation  and  in  his  recent  success 
in  the  art  of  glorified  murder,  which  is  the  plain  term  for  war? 

The  SPEAKER.     The  time  of  the  gentleman  has  expired. 

Mr.  MICHALEK.  Just  one  moment  more.  And  in  common 
justice  to  lalx)r 

The  SPEAKER.  The  gentleman's  time  has  expired.  Does 
the  gentleman  from  New  York  yield? 

Mr.  BEXXET  of  New  York.  I  should  like  to,  but  can  not,  as 
I  have  promised  all  the  time  I  have. 

Mr.  JAMES.  I  ask  unanimous  consent  that  the  gentleman 
may  have  further  time. 

The  SPEAKER.  Is  there  objection?  [After  a  pause.]  The 
Chair  hears  none. 

Mr.  MICHALEK.  Mr.  Speaker,  at  the  last  session  of  this 
Congress  I  have  sat  and  listened  to  and  read  several  speeches 
of  gentlemen  who  declaimed  loudly  against  the  immigrant  from 
Russia,  Austria-Hungary,  and  Italy.  I  have  heard  these  peo- 
ples, with  centuries  of  civilization  and  culture  behind  them,  de- 
nounced as  unfiL-£or  American  citizenship  and  as  tending  to  cor- 
nipt  our  morals,  lower  our  ideals,  and  debase  our  national  life, 
and  through  the  infusion  of  their  blood  bring  about  the  mental 
and  physical  degeneracy  of  the  people  of  this  country. 

And  yet  we  are  confronted  with  the  spectacle  of  a  nation 
hardly  emerged  from  barbarism  treated  with  a  consideration  by 
this  nation  that  seems  to  imply  some  wondrous  superiority  of 
this  branch  of  the  yellow  race  over  the  white  races. 

And,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  I  heard  no  denunciation  or  even 
a  criticism  of  the  Japanese  by  the  Memt>ers  of  this  House  who 
so  feelingly  portrayed  the  evils  of  this  European  immigration 
and  its  detrimental  effect  upon  the  American  people. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  for  the  State  of  California  as  against  any 
race  or  nation,  because  it  is  an  American  State  and  a  part  of 
the  United  States.  I  am  with  the  people  of  California,  because 
this  Japanese  question  is  the  Chinese  question  with  another 
name.     [Applause.] 

Whatever  may  be  said  in  criticism  of  the  San  Francisco 
school  oflScials'  attitude  on  the  school  question,  it  can  not  be 
7283 


6 

contended  that  their  demands  were  any  violation  of  any  treaty 
between  the  United  States  and  Japan. 

In  my  opinion  the  Federal  Government  has  no  constitutional 
right  to  interfere  in  the  management  of  the  schools  of  any 
State ;  and  its  interference  in  local  matters  is  hardly  conducive 
to  the  peace  and  well-being  of  these  United  States. 

The  Japanese  nation  demands  the  surrender  of  the  rights  of 
a  sovereign  State  to  control  its  own  affairs.  Rights,  Mr. 
Speaker,  guaranteed  the  people  of  California  by  our  Constitu- 
tion. 

As  far  as  I  know  there  has  never  been  denied  to  the  Japanese 
the  privilege  of  education ;  there  has  only  been  denied  the  right 
to  attend  the  same  schools  with  the  white  children  of  Cali- 
fornia. 

And  shall  we  blame  the  people  of  this  State,  the  fathers  and 
mothers,  for  objecting-  to  the  enforced  association  of  their 
daughters  with  Japanese  young  men?  With  the  offspring  of  a 
nation  whose  moral  standards  are  at  variance  with  those  that 
western  civilization  prescribes? 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  demand  of  the  people  of  California  for  sepa- 
rate schools  for  white  and  Mongolian  children  is  primarily  a 
local  issue. 

The  demand  for  a  rigid  Japanese  exclusion  act,  not  only  by 
the  people  of  that  section  of  this  country,  but  by  the  great  mass 
of  American  people  in  other  sections,  is  a  national  issue  that 
affects  the  very  existence  of  every  wage-earner  in  every  State  in 
the  Union. 

It  can  hardly  be  disputed  that  Japanese  immigration  affects 
the  interests  of  our  wage-earner  in  precisely  the  same  manner 
as  do  the  Chinese,  with  this  added  danger:  That  the  superior 
sense  of  imitation  and  adaptability  of  the  Jap  enables  him  to 
compete  in  the  skilled  trades,  whereas  the  Chinese  scope  of 
activity  is  generally  confined  to  the  coarser  trades.  I  maintain 
emphatically  that  the  interests  of  the  American  workingman 
are  of  greater  moment,  of  greater  importance,  than  the  interests 
or  needs  of  a  few  corporations  or  individuals  desiring  cooly 
labor. 

7283 


Now,  it  seems  to  me  that  in  common  justice  to  the  laborer  of 
this  country  the  Japanese  ought  to  be  placed  in  the  same  class 
as  the  Chinese  and  excluded.  However,  Mr.  Speiker,  this  ques- 
tion can  not,  this  question  will  not,  be  settled  by  this  delight- 
fully vague  amendment. 

It  will  be  settled,  sir,  when  the  American  people,  through 
their  representatives,  will  come  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that 
the  policy  of  excluding  all  Asiatic  labor  is  just  as  essential, 
just  as  important,  just  as  justifiable  as  our  adherence  to  the 
Monroe  doctrine.  [Applause.] 
7283 


/.L 


ss. 


c- 


UNiVERSITY  OF 

(IL-  iOlS   LfRRARY 

AT  UKMNA.-^AiViPAIGN 

SlACKS 


ATTENT  X  OISI 

This  container  is  for  the 
protectloD  and  preservatixxi  of  the 

library  materials  stored  in  it. 

*P lease  handle  its  contents  with 
care. 

*Please  return  contents  to  the 
container  in  the  best  possible 
order . 

*P lease  return  this  item 
directly  to  the  attendant  at 
the  service  point  from  which  it 
was  borrowed. 

*Please  do  not  return  via  a 
bookdrpp. 

Conservation  Unit 
UIUC  Library 


